The central unifying theme of this Project is to define the structure and function of pattern recognition receptors in Drosophila and man. We build on our past expertise in the Laboratory of Developmental Immunology where we have developed an approach that integrates biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, proteomics, and structural biology to identify and characterize biologically relevant pattern recognition molecules. We plan to build on and extend our previous work that has benefited from the collaboration between the four laboratories and an administrative core of the PPG. We have three aims: (1) explore the structure and function of a novel pattern recognition receptor Eater (in collaboration with Projects 2, 3 and 4); (2) utilize a combination of approaches in Drosophila and man to identify the macrophage receptor for anthrax spores; (3) examine the structure and function of peptidoglycan binding proteins in flies and man (in collaboration with Projects 2, 3 and 4)